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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24591100">Ferrum</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aire101/pseuds/Aire101'>Aire101</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sword Art Online (Anime &amp; Manga)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>AI Tony Stark, Anxiety Attacks, Crossover, Crossovers &amp; Fandom Fusions, Gen, Irondad, Not Spider-Man: Far From Home Compliant, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Peter Parker - Freeform, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Protective Peter Parker, Protective Tony Stark, Shifted Timeline for SAO, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, spiderson, tony stark - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 06:33:28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>17,084</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24591100</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aire101/pseuds/Aire101</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Project setbacks caused by the Blip forced Argus to release their long anticipated game Sword Art Online a year later than their expected date. Looking to get away from the pressure of recent events, from memorial art that can't replace what he's lost, a world trying to stand back up from five post-apocalyptic years, and memories around every corner, Peter Parker joins 10,000 others in the world's first full dive MMORPG—Sword Art Online.</p><p>And so does a very confused Anthony Edward Stark.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Peter Parker &amp; Tony Stark</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>59</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>My brain absolutely, positively refuses to focus on romance atm, which means I have made no progress on my unposted WIP and instead my brain ended up producing this concept which I will probably continue at least until I get it out of my system.  So here’s a post-Endgame MCU/SAO Irondad fic that I went online to read, discovered it didn’t exist yet, and so could NOT GET OUT OF MY DAMN HEAD.</p><p>This work is not beta read, and this is my first posting on AO3 so my apologies for any mistakes.  Also, I do the best I can to research terminology, but nevertheless my tech jargon may very well be incorrect.  Similarly, I attempted to use a Filipino phrase for Ned's mom but if it is disrespectful or done incorrectly, feel free to let me know/correct it for me.   Thanks for reading.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It had been a long day.</p><p>Then again, every day seemed like a long one lately.</p><p>It had been a relatively beautiful November day for New York City, and with the approaching holidays Peter was starting to see the usual uptick in petty crime begin this season. Within his five hour patrol he had helped eight lost tourists, found one lost pet, caught two armed burglars and tied up a ridiculous number of petty thieves. Nothing too problematic, just another day in the life of our friendly neighborhood Spider-man.</p><p>Peter sat crouched on a roof looking over the newest Iron Man mural to pop up, this time right on the edge between Queens and Brooklyn. There were several around town already, but this one was especially heart-wrenching. Most were either of the armor mid-action or of Mr. Stark in his trademark press look. But this one was different in the best and worst way.</p><p>In this art, Mr. Stark was still in his armor; but the helmet was retracted, allowing the viewer to see the blood crusted on his face and the lines of worry that ran even deeper than they were before everything had gone to hell. There weren’t many pictures of Mr. Stark from the five year period now known as the Blip, but in the ones there were Peter knew he had looked like this— tired and worn in a way Peter had never seen, but could well understand. All in all, it looked uncannily similar to the last time Peter had seen him. When—</p><p>Anyway—</p><p>And on the shoulders of this mural’s Tony Stark rested an enormous orb holding dozens of galaxies spiraling around a central point— a tiny arc reactor in the shape of a heart.</p><p>There was still a little while before he would be expected at Ned’s tonight, but the more he tried to convince himself to hit the streets again, the heavier his limbs felt.</p><p>He couldn’t do it. Not like this. Experience told him it was a recipe for disaster, likely to get himself or someone else badly hurt. Himself he could handle, someone else… his conscience couldn’t take another body added to its count right now. Besides, he had promised Ned he’d be there tonight.</p><p>Peter sighed and swung away from his rooftop perch to head back towards Ned’s, not sparing the art a backwards glance.</p><p>No matter how good it was, no reproduction could ever duplicate what he had lost.</p><p> </p><p>“Whoa, you’re early,” said Ned with a mild tone of shock. Which honestly… was probably fair. “I wasn’t expecting you for at least another thirty minutes.”</p><p>“Yeah, I decided to call it an early night. It was actually pretty quiet tonight anyway. Didn’t want to get too wrung out on the web considering we have plans tonight,” said Peter as he stepped into the Leeds' apartment, slipping off his shoes and hanging his coat on the rack. “Where is everyone?”</p><p>“Dad has to work tonight, and mom and Angelica went to Laser Bounce earlier, but they should be back before too long. I stayed home to finish some stuff up before the launch tonight. Plus, I wasn’t sure when you’d be getting here, so…”</p><p>“Sorry, I should have messaged earlier.”</p><p>“You’re alright man. Like I said, I had some stuff to wrap up. I plan to be in-game as much as possible tomorrow,” said Ned as they moved into his bedroom.</p><p>“You sure you don’t mind me getting the first run tonight? They might have some secret opening event planned for the first few hours…” asked Peter. </p><p>“I am absolutely positive. I am going to have plenty of opportunities to lose unhealthy amounts of sleep to this game. Besides, between the two of us I think you need the break more than me. On a related note— you look terrible man. Have you been sleeping at all?”</p><p>“I sleep,” said Peter defensively. “I don’t really need much though, you know?”</p><p>“Physically, sure. Mentally? You’re still just as human as the rest of us Peter. Have you talked to May about it? Or Happy?”</p><p>“Can we please drop this? It’s just been a long day, alright?”</p><p>“What happened? I thought you said it was mostly quiet?” asked Ned, confused.</p><p>“I meant it was quiet for New York, I was still busy pretty much all evening,” said Peter, falling backwards onto Ned’s bed.</p><p>Ned sat down at his computer, spinning around to face Peter. “Fine, but I’m definitely going to harass you later, and you better actually sleep after we trade off in a few hours. Anyway, I am SO PSYCHED or this! God I hope its worth all the hype.”</p><p>“I can’t imagine it being a flop. The tech behind it is revolutionary, and the head developer has been working on the game for like a decade,” said Peter, as he scrolled through the GameSpot special coverage from that day.</p><p>“Wasn’t SI contracted to consult on it, too?” asked Ned.</p><p>Peter felt his throat begin to constrict. The nails of his right hand bit into the flesh of his palm as he forced himself to take a slow breath—hold—and release…</p><p>“Yeah, Mr. Stark consulted on it himself. Some of the engineering on the headset is similar to the BARF technology. I think he might have worked on a couple system AI’s as well.”</p><p>“That is so cool man. So this is almost like his last tech contribution? Last gift to the world…”</p><p>“I doubt that. It was just a consult job, most of the work was done by Argus. Plus, Mr. Stark had years worth of projects and updates on file. We’ll probably see things he had a hand in being released for the next ten years at the least,” said Peter.</p><p>“Still pretty cool though,” said Ned with a shrug.</p><p>At that moment, Peter heard the sound of a key being inserted into the lock of the front door.</p><p>“Looks like they’re back,” he said, continuing to scroll, this time through discussions on Reddit.</p><p>“Have you had dinner yet? You know if you haven’t she’s going to force you to eat before you dive.”</p><p>“Nah, I didn’t get a chance to stop off earlier. What kind of leftovers do ya have?”</p><p>“I think there’s meatloaf and some chicken adobo left at the moment”</p><p>“Yaaasss… Chicken adobo…”</p><p>Just then Ned’s bedroom door opened, and Mrs. Leeds poked her head in, a large smile on her face.</p><p>“Peter! I thought I saw your coat by the door! I’m glad you were able to make it tonight! Edward has been excited about the sleepover for weeks,” she said.</p><p>“Oh my god, mom! It’s not a sleepover! I doubt we’ll even sleep much!”</p><p>“Isn’t that what sleepovers are about?! You’re ridiculous… Anyway, have you eaten?” Mrs. Leeds asked, looking at Peter.</p><p>Peter had to bite back a smile, but shook his head.</p><p>“Hala ka, you’re going to waste away into dry bones! I don’t care how busy you are these days, you shouldn’t be skipping meals. You’ll blow away in a strong breeze. Come, I’ll heat something up. I know how bad you boys get about eating when its a normal game. A full immersion VR? You’ll forget you even have a real body that needs sustenance.”</p><p>“Yes, ma’am,” said Peter, dutifully following her into the kitchen.</p><p>“You are in luck. We have some leftover chicken adobo from last night. I know you like that recipe. Did May ever give it a go?”</p><p>Peter flashed back to the gloopy, slightly charred mess that was May’s attempt at cooking the dish. “Eh… Yeah but it wasn’t quite the same. Still needs a bit of work.”</p><p>“Huh,” Mrs. Leeds said, sounding confused.</p><p>“Peter!” shouted a voice from behind him.</p><p>“Hey Angie,” said Peter, before he felt arms wrap around him from behind in a bear hug.</p><p>His heart throbbed in his chest. His breath caught and wouldn’t come.</p><p>
  <em>Thanos was coming for the gauntlet he couldn’t let him have it he had to run the aliens were grabbing him he had to—</em>
</p><p>“You never come around anymore! It’s been months—!”</p><p>“Stop that Angelica. It’s been a crazy year, and Peter stays very busy between school and an internship. Shouldn’t you be getting ready for bed? It’s already way passed bedtime.”</p><p>Angie rolled her eyes dramatically but stomped back off towards her room to do as she was asked.</p><p>“Sorry, dear. She just missed her big brothers, you know.”</p><p>Peter did his best to force out a grin, but he wasn’t sure just how well it came off because the next thing he knew Mrs. Leeds was giving him a tender kiss on the head and muttering about making some cups of cocoa.</p><p>It was moments like this that he truly felt the strange reality of the fact that he had lost five years of his life. On the surface level everything felt mostly the same— Aunt May along with the majority of his friends had also been snapped, as well as several of his teachers. But while they were gone, Ned’s little sister aged from an innocent five year old, to a ten year old girl who had grown in a world in more confusion, pain and desperation than Peter could really comprehend. Freshman he had helped tutor in school had graduated. Families he had known were irreparably torn apart, seemingly overnight. </p><p>It felt like while he was still the same, the rest of the world had tilted slightly to the left, leaving him unbalanced and unsure where to step next. He’d always felt a bit out of place anyway after the spider bite, but now it was so much worse. Sometimes Peter wanted a taste of what normal used to be like, without freaky spider powers, world protecting responsibilities and the guilt of looking around him and wondering if he deserved to be here at all.</p><p>He glanced at the clock that hung on the wall— fifteen minutes till midnight.</p><p>“I should probably go brush my teeth too and get settled in. The server will open soon,” said Peter as he stood.</p><p>“Yeah, though there shouldn’t really be much to do other than to actually connect since we calibrated your account the other day,” said Ned.</p><p>Within ten minutes Peter had taken care of his nightly necessities and given Angie and Mrs. Leeds both a hug goodnight, settling in on the upper bunk of Ned’s bed.</p><p>“Last time I’m asking— are you <em>sure</em> you don’t mind me giving this the first run?” asked Peter.</p><p>Ned sighed and spun around from his computer to send Peter an exasperated look. “Do you <em>not</em> want to take it on its maiden voyage?”</p><p>“That’s not what I said,” Peter rolled his eyes.</p><p>“Then stop worrying.  Just have a good time for once.  Also, I downloaded a couple files to the gear.  Not sure how reliable it is yet, but a few beta testers put out some first floor tips on the DL as a downloadable in game file, so check that out once you dive.  It might help out a bit.”</p><p>“Will do.  Thanks.”</p><p>“No problem.  Now get going, and be sure to take plenty of notes in your journal to send me later,” said Ned.</p><p>“See you around, kid.”</p><p>“I am older than you are by two months.  Shut up and dive, loser.”</p><p>Peter smiled as he fitted the Nervegear onto his head, laid back and said, “Link Start.”</p><p>———————</p><p>In a remote, non-descript server room a certain file kicked to life.  It’s programming had been remotely accessed, a mere accident of oversight.  The digital pathways that connected it to the Argus servers, while known about, had been forgotten in the chaos of the last few years.  The file was not one created within the system, but one created to interact within it.  The Cardinal system downloaded the precious data, implementing it in the category that best described its form and function.</p><p>Program designation: Client<br/>
System ID: Ferrum Vir<br/>
Administration level: GM</p><p>. . . .</p><p>Installation Complete</p><p>————————</p><p>At 12:00 am EST on November 5th, 2023 (1:00 pm JST), Peter Parker joined 10,000 others in the world’s first full dive MMORPG— Sword Art Online.</p><p>And so did a very confused Anthony Edward Stark.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>His first moment of awareness struck him like a tidal wave of sensory input—the sound of thousands of voices chattering; an alien smell of dust and ozone, as if someone wasn’t quite sure what air should smell like; the feel of a breeze caught in a wind tunnel, and the warmth of hundreds of bodies standing together.  </p><p>And then Tony opened his eyes.</p><p>All around him were thousands of people in various fantasy garb, some with swords hanging from their waist, others eyeing daggers, rapiers and axes at stalls along the side streets. People shouted to one another, smiled and fist pumped in fits of elation.  The whole city plaza was filled with an energy of excitement and anticipation.  </p><p>Tony had no idea where the hell he was, or what was going on.</p><p>The last thing he remembered was… a meeting.  With that Argus Head Developer, Kayaba.  But the harder he tried to focus on the details, the more he felt them slip away…</p><p>“Holy Shit!  Your avatar looks just like Iron Man!” said a man who Tony was pretty sure had not been standing next to him a couple seconds ago.  “How did you manage that?  I know the character creation module is super detailed but that would have taken forever to work out.  Does that mean you were in the beta test?”</p><p>“Uhh…” Tony said, scrambling to make sense of the jargon he had just heard.</p><p>Avatar… character creation… beta test…</p><p>“Anyway, excellent work on it!  I’m an Iron Man fan too, though I guess most people are these days.  See ya ‘round, mate!” And with that the man left, leaving Tony still scrambling to comprehend.</p><p>As he stood there, he listened in on nearby conversations for more context clues.</p><p>“Oh my god this is amazing!  The visuals are so gorgeous!”</p><p>“You can <em>feel the breeze!</em>  The amount of sensory input just to achieve that—”</p><p>“Do you smell that?  It smells like fresh baked bread.  I heard that the taste and smell sensory was the hardest part in the coding development.”</p><p>Visuals… sensory input… coding development…</p><p>“That’s it, Full Dive has won me over completely.  I’m going to sell all my other games starting tomorrow.”</p><p>Holy.  Fucking.  Shit.</p><p>The meeting with Argus and Kayaba.  It was over his consultation on their new Full Dive gaming technology and their AI systems.  But it was still <em>years</em> away from completion.  And besides, there was <em>no way in hell</em> he would ever consent to having his brain plugged in to someone else’s technology.  That was in fact exactly what he had told them in that meeting, and the primary hold up on developments on his end.  </p><p>But this was way past pre-alpha or even the alpha phase… if he understood this right, this was a <em>stable release</em> event.</p><p>Which meant he was currently plugged into the Sword Art Online servers, <em>and had lost years off his memory.</em></p><p>His chest tightened as his breaths started to come in shallow gasps.  His vision began to gray around the edges.  </p><p>In spite of his situation, he had to give Argus an applause for their work— this panic attack felt exactly like one in the real world, only less physically painful.  </p><p>Just as he felt his knees hit the ground, someone came up beside him.</p><p>“Hey, I don’t know what’s wrong, but its going to be ok,” said a voice.  They sounded young.  “Take deep breaths with me.  After every number I count, we’ll breath together ok?  So… one,” the kid took a deep breath and slowly released.  Tony tried to breath along with them, but didn’t quite manage it.  “That’s ok, we have plenty more you can do.  So here we go.  Two…”</p><p>Breath in, breath out…</p><p>“Three…”</p><p>This reminded him of that time he’d missed a week of meds during a mission.  Peter had been over to do some necessary maintenance after he had gotten back, and next thing he knew the kid was walking him through the storm.  Apparently his aunt had some problems after his uncle had died.</p><p>“Ok, you backslid a bit there on four, lets try again.  Five…”</p><p>Peter… the kid had been so excited about this game concept.</p><p>“That’s great, you’re doing great.  Six…”</p><p>Was he out there in the crowd somewhere?</p><p>“Seven…”</p><p>He needed to find out what was going on.  He needed to get in touch with game support.  He needed to log out.</p><p>“Eight…”</p><p>His breaths were coming deeper and the tightness was releasing.  Now with a plan of action, he felt marginally more in control.</p><p>“Nine…”</p><p>He could do this.  Memories or no memories, his mind was still his own.</p><p>“Ten… You look like you’re doing good there.  How are you feeling?”</p><p>Tony finally took a moment to look at the one who had helped him.  Given that what he was seeing was an avatar, there was no telling the real age or gender of the person.  But the character depicted was a young man with long blond hair, blue eyes and built like a wall.  He looked strangely like what Tony imagined a young Thor would have looked like.</p><p>“I’m alright.  Thanks for hanging around through that.  You didn’t have to, so I appreciate it,” said Tony, slowly getting to his feet.  He couldn’t help but notice (and appreciate) the lack of pain in his knees from either the fall or the standing.  </p><p>Yay for silver linings.</p><p>“It’s no problem.  I had… have… family that needed that kind of support,” the boy said, with a glance at his face before he looked away.</p><p>“I’m sorry, that sucks.  Not that you have them, but that they have it too.  It sucks,” said Tony, fumbling through his words awkwardly.</p><p>The guy smiled and nodded, “I get what you mean.  And yeah, it does.  You doing alright now though?  Do you need me to call a GM or something?”</p><p>“Maybe.  I’m probably just going to try and log out though.  You wouldn’t happen to know how to do that would you?” asked Tony.</p><p>“I think so.  I read about the mechanics of it at least,” said the boy. “What you need to do is open up your User Interface.  Just swipe down with your hand in front of yourself.”</p><p>The boy swiped his hand down and an interface screen popped up like a hologram.</p><p>Tony followed his example, bringing up his own interface.</p><p>“Thanks kid… Have a name I can call you?”</p><p>“I’m going by Tor in the game.”</p><p>Tony looked over his interface with a raised eyebrow, “A Thor fan I take it.”</p><p>“Like you’re in any position to criticize,” the kid grumbled, with a look up and down.  “Even your robes are his colors.  How did you get robes, anyway?  The default is trousers, tunic and vest.  I haven’t seen anyone run around in a set of robes.  Was it a beta thing?”</p><p>Tony looked down at himself.  Sure enough, he was in a set of red robes with gold trim.  That also made him realize… this body was only an avatar, but apparently it looked like himself.</p><p>Whatever, him making his avatar look exactly like himself sounded pretty on brand, honestly.</p><p>“Would you believe me if I said I honestly have no idea,” said Tony, scrolling through his interface.</p><p>“I mean, it’d be weird but considering how confused you look I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt,” Tor said with a shrug.</p><p>Meanwhile Tony found two separate settings menus.  One opened up an entire other menu system, and the other at the bottom of the main menu opened a box with three buttons— Options, Help, and a grayed out logout symbol.</p><p>“Huh, that’s weird,” mumbled Tor, looking through his own settings menu.  “Talk about a terrible bug to have on opening day.  You’d think that would be the one thing they had working before opening to the public.  As far as I know there weren’t any logout problems during the beta.”</p><p>“I guess we’re calling a GM then,” said Tony.</p><p>Peter pressed the Help button, prompting a ‘Calling GM’ box to pop up with a picture of an old man in red and gold robes.</p><p>“Hey, those robes look like—” Tor was saying.</p><p>“Oh shit,” said Tony, wide eyed.  A communication bubble had come up on his menu as soon as Tor had pressed his button, it read ‘Incoming GM Help call from Tor (Player 8476).’</p><p>“Uhhh…” said Tor, staring at the window with wide eyes as well.  “Well then, that’s a problem.”</p><p>Tony continued to stare at the screen dumbfounded, mouth open and closing like a fish.</p><p>As he did, another call request window opened up.  Then another.  Then another…</p><p>Tony’s confusion quickly morphed into horror.  </p><p>“Dude, how in the world did you accidentally end up with a GM account?” asked Tor.</p><p>“I don’t know, but I can’t help these people.  How do I shut it off?!”</p><p>“See if there’s a ghost mode or something,” said Tor.</p><p>Quickly Tony tapped into the other options menu he had only briefly glanced at before.  Sure enough, the menu was titled ‘Game Master Settings.’</p><p>“This is ridiculous,” muttered Tony as he scrolled and tapped through various options.</p><p>“About as ridiculous as your facial hair,” said Tor, with a grin.</p><p>“Excuse you, everything about my face is a work of art,” said Tony.</p><p>“Abstract art, maybe.”</p><p>“You know what, kid—”</p><p>“Could you maybe not call me that?  Please?” Tor asked, his face suddenly tight.</p><p>“Uh, sure… sorry.”</p><p>“You don’t need to be sorry.  It just makes me a bit uncomfortable,” said Tor, looking like he regretted even saying anything.</p><p>“No problem.”</p><p>Finally, Tony found the GM communication settings.  Currently the mode was set to ‘Available,’ but after clicking on it he found an ‘Unavailable’ setting, with the option to send calls to a voice mail for later listening.</p><p>Quickly he switched the modes, and the flurry of call boxes ceased.</p><p>“Well, that’s one problem down,” said Tony, scrolling through the rest of the GM settings.  While he heartily approved of the colors, the robes made him stand out like a sore thumb among the masses of beige and brown.</p><p>But if he really was a GM, he should be able to generate something different…</p><p>With a flash of blue static light, Tony generated a red tunic under an average looking breast plate, paired with the usual leather trousers.  </p><p>“You just had to make the tunic red, huh?” said Tor with a thin laugh.</p><p>“Eh, it’s my thing,” Tony said with a shrug.  </p><p>Tor pursed his lips but didn’t comment further.</p><p>“Anyway, thanks for your help.  I’m sure whatever bug this is will be figured out pretty quick.  I don’t want to hog your game time though,” said Tony, trying to disengage as kindly as possible and without hinting at just how concerning the current situation really was.  Tor had been helpful, but the person on the other side of that avatar could be fourteen or forty.  Either way, they didn’t need to be saddled with Tony’s issues.</p><p>“I don’t mind.  I don’t usually play MMO’s anyway, so I’m not really sure what to do now,” said Tor.  “I have a few hours before I’m supposed to trade off with my friend, but I had only really planned to hang around for a couple of them to check things out.  With the logout bugged though, I might be here for a while.”</p><p>“I’ve never played RPG’s at all, so I’m probably even more clueless than you are,” said Tony.  “That being said, the first thing you do is probably to stock up on equipment and supplies.  Do you have any currency right off the bat?”</p><p>“We start with 50 Cor, but I’m not really sure what that translates to within the economy.”</p><p>“I would say as a GM I could generate more, but if I’m remembering correctly the system was specifically designed to control inflation and it may not like that,” said Tony, flicking through his interface.</p><p>“I mean, I guess that would be one way to get someone’s attention,” shrugged Tor.</p><p>“Considering I apparently have my brain plugged into someone else’s tech, I would really rather avoid that particular flavor of attention,” said Tony.</p><p>“I hadn’t thought about it that way… They wouldn’t do something too awful to a player though would they?  That wouldn’t really be good press for them.  I would think that the worst they would do is boot you out of the game,” said Tor, looking concerned.</p><p>“I wish I had the kind of faith in people you do.  As it is, I’d rather not chance it.  That being said, it looks like one of the things I can freely generate are base level swords and armor.  Its not much, but it’ll get you started.”</p><p>“Since we’re both stuck here, how about we party up for a while?  Not much else to do to spend the time.  My friend downloaded a text file with some starter tips from the Beta players, so we could go give it a shot,” said Tor.</p><p>Tony let out a breath, running his hand through his hair.  He really should be trying to figure out a solution to his predicament, but if the GM call failure was any indicator, the situation may be a lot worse than he wanted this kid to realize.  And at this point he was pretty sure the person on the other side of Tor’s avatar was in fact a kid, perhaps a relatively mature teenager, but not an adult. </p><p>And apparently they were attaching themselves to Tony, for whatever reason.  And Tony couldn’t bring himself to kick an obviously anxious kid to the curb.</p><p>“Sure, that sounds like a good plan. Send me a copy of the text file and we’ll discuss it while we head out of town.”</p><p>. . .</p><p>“Ferrum Vir… did you seriously name yourself ‘Iron Man’ in Latin?”</p><p>“Pot meet kettle there, Tor.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Here’s the next chapter, and my apologies for how closely part of it follows Episode 1 of SAO.  After this the story probably won’t follow much of the shown canon at all, though I will probably bring in SAO characters for the boys to interact with eventually.  But in SAO everyone has the same starting point.  But with the world being as complex as it is, I doubt I’ll ever really need to follow episode events or dialogue this closely again.  Though I might get the boys involved in the Level 1 boss battle, we’ll see.</p><p>Also, please excuse any incorrect computer/programming/gaming jargon.  I’m doing the best I can. T_T</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Peter was a masochist.  That was really the only explanation for his current situation.  The person had even offered to go their own way before Peter had opened his big mouth and tied them together for the next couple hours.</p><p>Peter <em>knew</em> it wasn’t really Mr. Stark, he did.  But the avatar looked <em>exactly</em> like the Tony Stark Peter remembered— before the space starvation and the new stress lines of living in a post-apocalyptic earth.  And he <em>sounded</em> just like him.  He had the same weird humor that fluctuated wildly between arrogance and self-deprecation.  He got Peter’s stupid science jokes and the laugh he gave when Peter growled out “FINISH HIM” during a fight with a boar was painfully familiar.  Several times he had to stop himself from calling out the wrong name, and each time left him feeling like he was repeatedly prodding a gaping chasm of a wound.</p><p>“You ok, Ki— uh, sorry… Tor?”</p><p>And then there was that.  All in all, it was a perfect recipe for emotional disaster.</p><p>“Yeah, sorry… my mind wandered off a bit there.”</p><p>“In the middle of a pvp and monster spawn zone might not be the best place for that you know.  How does this game even handle respawns?” asked Ferrum, striking down another boar with a swift horizontal strike.  It taken a bit of trial and error for them to get the hang of activating the sword skills, but once it had clicked they had made quick work of the low level spawns in the area.</p><p>“You know, for someone who managed to snag a limited release of this game you know surprisingly little about it,” responded Peter.</p><p>“Yes, I known, I’m an enigma.  Humor me and explain please.”</p><p>“We’re supposed to respawn in the nearest town I think.  Given the bugs we’ve seen so far though I’m not sure I’d want to test that at the moment.  Might be one way to initiate a logout though?” said Peter.</p><p>“I’d rather not risk it, and I’d suggest you do the same until we hear from an actual GM,” said Ferrum, sheathing his sword.  “That being said, we’ve been out here a few hours now, wanna head back into town and see if anyone has heard anything?”</p><p>“Sure,” said Peter, also putting away his weapon.  They stood in the middle of a clearing with expansive views.  Most of the beasts in this area hadn’t been ones to initiate conflict, and they would have plenty of forewarning if anything headed in their direction.  So for a moment Peter allowed himself to just relax and take a proper look around the area, marveling at the beauty and complexity of the world Argus had built.  Off in the distance he could see hills disappear into the haze of the the horizon and cities raised atop impossible pillars.  In a field not too far from them there were a couple other players likewise looking out, taking in the beauty of the glistening waterfalls and towns painted in oranges and reds as sunset came over Aincrad.  </p><p>“I have to give them credit.  When I first heard about their plans for this game I was a bit dubious on whether they would actually be able to deliver on the promise.  Concept art looks great, but actually being able to code a full sensory experience into an application?  And create an entire open world with that data?  I mean, I had thought about the concept before, but the technology needed to do it always made me a bit uneasy…  It would be way to easy for someone to use it in ways it shouldn’t be,” said Ferrum.</p><p>“What changed your mind then? I mean, since you’re here now?” asked Peter.</p><p>“…I don’t know,” muttered Ferrum, sounding distinctly unsettled with the admission.</p><p>Peter opened his mouth with a joke on the tip of his tongue, something to lighten the suddenly uneasy mood—</p><p>When the deep toll of a bell rang out from the Town of Beginnings, rolling through the air with the tone of a death knell.</p><p>“Huh, wonder if they’re finally about to make an announcement?” said Peter.  “I’m surprised it took so—”</p><p>Suddenly a white light enveloped him.  In those seconds he felt nothing, completely stripped of sensory.  Just as he felt himself starting to panic, the light released him and was gone as quickly as it had came.  He found himself and Ferrum once again standing in the center of the plaza of the Town of Beginnings.  All around them seemingly every one of the 10,000 players were similarly being teleported into the square.  </p><p>“What the hell?” said Ferrum.</p><p>“I don’t know.  Pretty sure they should be able to make announcements across the whole game regardless of player location.  Maybe its an opening event?  Would explain the theatrics of it,” said Peter.</p><p>The whole square was a buzz with nervous confusion as people tried to figure out what was going on, then Peter heard someone call out above the crowd, “Up there!”</p><p>Peter looked up, and above the square there flashed a single red polygon with the word WARNING.</p><p>The sky turned red as more and more polygons spawned proclaiming ‘WARNING’ and ‘SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT.’</p><p>Peter wanted to think that maybe they had found the bug.  Maybe they were announcing a fix or instructions for the players…</p><p>But even without his spidey sense, something felt <em>wrong</em>.</p><p>Then the sky began to bleed.</p><p>“What is that?” asked a player to the side in horrified awe as the blood-like liquid began to coalesce into a more solid state.  Within moments it formed into a hooded figure wearing familiar blood red robes with gold trim.</p><p>A Game Master— likely an a real one this time.</p><p>The crowd of players all began to mutter speculations about the figure or the possibility of an event.</p><p>“I have bad feeling about all this.”</p><p>Peter jumped.  He had forgotten about Ferrum at his side.  He looked over at the older looking man, taking in the tight lines around his mouth, his eyes darting around the area taking everything in, but not straying too long way from the god-like figure of the GM in front of them.</p><p>Peter wished he could reassure the man like he had earlier in the day, but Peter was suddenly very aware that in this world he was no different than anyone else.  Just as vulnerable, just as powerless… What had originally been a main draw for him was now a very real weakness.  </p><p>
  <em>“It would be way to easy for someone to use it in ways it shouldn’t be…”</em>
</p><p>They were absolutely at the mercy of this monolithic system…</p><p>“Attention Players… Welcome to my world.  My name is Kayaba Akihiko.  As of this moment, I am the sole person who can control this world.”</p><p>And whoever controlled it.</p><p>“Son of a bitch,” muttered Ferrum, a look of horror on his face.</p><p>“I’m sure you’ve already noticed that the logout button is missing from the main menu,” Kayaba continued.  “But this is not a defect in the game.”</p><p>A shiver traveled up Peter’s spine.  A stone of cold fear formed in his stomach.  Surely not… surely someone along the way would have noticed something so horrendous in the code…</p><p>“I repeat— this is not a defect in the game.  It is a <em>feature</em> of Sword Art Online.”</p><p>“But how… how can he keep us here?  Surely someone on the outside can still get us out?” asked Peter.</p><p>“It’s the hardware, Kid.  He’s fucked with the user client hardware that everyone’s brains are wired into,” growled Ferrum.</p><p>“You cannot log out of SAO yourselves.  And no one on the outside can shut down or remove the NerveGear.  Should this be attempted, the transmitter inside the NerveGear will emit a powerful microwave, destroying your brain and thus ending your life,” said Kayaba.</p><p>Immediately Peter ran through all the specs on the hardware he was privy to during his time as Tony’s intern, and came to the same conclusion Ferrum already had— this mad man was not lying.  He had disabled the safety mechanism that would keep certain powerful data bursts from frying someone’s brain.</p><p>Data bursts such as an autosave or a death respawn.</p><p>“Unfortunately, several players’ friends and families have ignored this warning, and have attempted to remove the NerveGear.  As a result, two hundred and thirteen players are gone forever, from both Aincrad and the real world.”</p><p> “Two hundred and thirteen…”</p><p>Peter turned around to see Ferrum looking on with eyes wide, his right hand grasping his left wrist as his left hand gave small spasms.  </p><p>That motion was intimately familiar.  The similarity  was uncanny…</p><p>“As you can see, news organizations across the world are reporting all of this, including the deaths.” Multiple program windows opened, most featuring various news channels running live, corroborating what Kayaba was explaining.    “Thus, you can assume that the danger of a NerveGear being removed is now minimal.  I hope you will relax and attempt to clear the game.</p><p>But I want you to remember this clearly.  There is no longer any method to revive someone within the game.  If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be forever lost.  And simultaneously, the NerveGear will destroy your brain.”</p><p>So he was right— it was both the autosave and respawn functions that had been weaponized in the headset.  The more he thought about it, the more angry he became.  The man had taken glorious innovations in technology—some of it pioneered by Mr. Stark himself—and twisted it into a personal hell for all these people, some of them undoubtedly children.  As if the world hadn’t been dealing with enough tragedy over the last few years.  He wanted nothing more than to punch Kayaba directly in the face with every pound of his spider strength.</p><p>But he couldn’t do that.  In this world, he was just like everyone else.</p><p>With great power comes great responsibility… but without that power, was that responsibility still his?</p><p>“There is only one means of escape.  To complete the game,” Kayaba said, bringing up a digital layout of the floors of Aincrad.  “You are presently on the lowest floor of Aincrad, Floor 1.  If you make your way through the dungeon and defeat the Floor Boss, you may advance to the next level.  Defeat the final boss on Floor 100, and you will clear the game.”</p><p>The crowd, which up till now had been mostly muted in shock, finally began to shout and rumble in confusion and denial.  And from the sound of things, this monologue was just about to wrap up.  When it did, all hell was going to break loose.</p><p>He had some choices to make, and fast.</p><p>“Finally, I’ve added a present from me to your item storage.  Please see for yourselves.”</p><p>Shit.  What now?</p><p>Peter swiped down to access his storage, feeling distinctly as if he were walking into a trap.  Out of the corner of his eye he could see Ferrum doing so as well.</p><p>An item labeled ‘Mirror’ had been placed in his inventory.</p><p>“I’m guessing this mirror is the ‘gift,’ though now I’m wondering if he programmed the auto-drop or did it himself, and if he’s aware of my… status,” whispered Ferrum.</p><p>That’s right.  Ferrum was a GM, however that had happened.</p><p>“Do you think you could—”</p><p>But he didn’t get to finish his question, as at that moment everyone in the plaza began to shout as they were all consumed once again by white light.</p><p>When it receded, everyone had changed.</p><p>Some looked younger, most looked older.  Quite a few people around him looked to have changed genders completely.  Peter glanced back down at the mirror in his to see his Thor-like appearance gone completely, and instead his true face reflected back at him.  </p><p>So that was the purpose of the all too thorough calibration he and Ned had gone through.</p><p>“Kid,” said a shocked voice at his side.  </p><p>Peter turned around towards Ferrum, wondering who had been behind the meticulous avatar of Mr. Stark…</p><p>Only to see that Ferrum was completely unchanged.  Perhaps being a GM had made him impervious to the magic of the mirror?</p><p>“Underoos… what are you doing here, kid?!”</p><p>With those heartbroken words, Peter’s carefully constructed walls came crashing down.</p><p>. . . . .</p><p>Peter couldn’t think.  He certainly couldn’t speak.</p><p>He could vaguely tell that Kayaba had continued with his closing speech, but he couldn’t tell you what he had said.</p><p>All he could process was Mr. Stark’s face in front of him, and the name that only he had ever uttered to him.</p><p>It was impossible.  He had seen the body—the horrific scorching where the universal energies had burned through him, the life support system shutting off, the brightness leaving behind a cold husk in a metal suit—</p><p>Peter’s whole body flinched when he felt that familiar hand rest on his shoulder.</p><p>“Kid!  Are you with me?  We need to get out of here.”</p><p>In the time Peter had spaced out Kayaba had disappeared, and now the whole crowd was devolving into a panic.  People were screaming in terror and rage, several had broken down into sobbing messes on the ground.</p><p>He wanted to do something— anything to make this better.  Tell people that it was ok, they would figure this out.</p><p>But more than that, he wanted someone else to tell him that as well.</p><p>Finally he brought himself to focus on what Mr. Stark was saying.</p><p>“What do you mean we have to go— where else is there to go?” asked Peter.  “We can’t leave the game, we’ve tried—”</p><p>“Not the game, we need to get out of town.”</p><p>“What— why—”</p><p>“We can talk more later, follow me,” Mr. Stark said before running down a nearby alley.</p><p>After a few minutes they stopped, and Mr. Stark started flicking through his user interface.</p><p>“This is a fantasy RPG… you can’t tell me there are no helmets…”</p><p>After scrolling for a while, he tapped an item on the list and spawned a basic metal helmet and quickly placed it on is head, before continuing to run out of town.</p><p>“Mr. Stark!  Wait!” cried Peter.</p><p>“Don’t shout that kid, otherwise the helmet is pointless!” Mr. Stark called back.</p><p>“<em>Ferrum</em>… why are we heading out of town?  Its about to be dark and the only safe zone we know is here!” shouted Peter.</p><p>“The people back there are panicking, Peter.  It won’t be much longer before they start turning on each other, looking for someone to take it out on.  Between my face and the fact that some saw me in GM robes earlier I don’t want to chance hanging around for someone to put the pieces together.  Not to mention this area’s resources are going to be swamped before we know it.  Resource management is built in to the Cardinal system to maintain balance and encourage player movement and activity.  There won’t be enough to go around.”</p><p>“But if we <em>die on the road</em> the resources we need won’t really matter!” yelled Peter, pulling to a stop.  “There’s only so much they can do to us in town, it’s a No PVP area.  Lets just find an inn on the outskirts of town and spend the night.  We need a better plan than just running out of the safe zone at twilight.”</p><p>Mr. Stark had pulled to a stop when Peter had, obviously unwilling to leave him behind.  He looked down the alley, obviously wanting to continue on, but after a moment his shoulders dropped in an obvious show of concession.</p><p>“Fine, lets go to the outer ring and find a place,” said Mr. Stark.</p><p>As he turned and started walking away, Peter allowed himself a moment to take in the familiar gait, the way Mr. Stark always walked with his back straight and his head held high, as if he were always prepared to walk onto a red carpet, even in his most destroyed workshop clothes.</p><p>He could recognize every familiar mannerism from their hours pouring over suit tech and web formulas.  In retrospect, perhaps that as much as his face was why he had latched onto the man to begin with.  </p><p>But the billion dollar question still remained… <em>how?</em></p><p>Hopefully once they found a room to bunk in, he could work out what the hell was going on… preferably before he had a complete emotional breakdown.</p>
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<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Sorry y'all, this isn't abandoned, life just sucks and makes it hard to write sometimes.  At any rate, here's the next installment.  Take care.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Something was wrong with the kid.  Other than the fact that they had just gotten locked into a death game, of course. Tony couldn’t put a finger on exactly what, but he didn’t like it.</p><p>Knowing who Tor was now, he also knew that this ‘something wrong’ predated Kayaba’s villainous monologue in the town square.  He could see it in the way he would sometimes catch Peter staring at him out of the corner of his eye with an expression as if he were chewing on glass, the way he reacted to being called ‘kid’ before their identities were revealed…</p><p>Then there was how the kid looked like he had seen a ghost after the reveal.  Or worse than that, considering the strangeness in their life and work.</p><p>It was obvious that something had happened in the last few years that he couldn’t remember.  Something that to Peter made it almost impossible for Tony to be here, stuck in this game with him.  But try as he might, he could remember nothing.</p><p>He could only hope that whatever it was he had broken this time, there was still a chance to repair it.</p><p>It didn’t take long for them to make it to the outer edge of the city.  And right inside the Eastern gate they found a small inn with a friendly NPC keeper who informed them that a double room would be 15 Cor for the night.  Tony quickly made the exchange and hustled them upstairs to their appointed room.</p><p>“Would you like dinner brought up?  It would be an additional 5 Cor for the both of you,” asked the keeper as they were shown to their room. </p><p>Honestly, Tony hadn’t even considered the concept of food since he woke up in this virtual world.  What was the point?</p><p>“Yes please,” said Peter, ever polite even to coded entities.</p><p>The keeper gave a smile and nod of confirmation before heading back down stairs.</p><p> “Is there a point in eating inside a virtual environment?” asked Tony as he closed the door behind them.</p><p>“Eating food in the game works like a placebo—it doesn’t actually help your body, but it makes you feel full.  Obviously our actual bodies will have to be put on a support system to be maintained, but if we don’t eat in game we’ll just go around being hungry sometimes,” said Peter as he plopped down onto one of the beds.</p><p>Shit… Tony hadn’t thought that far ahead yet.  And with Peter’s metabolism and mutations he would need care tailored to his physiology…</p><p>“Where are you?  In the real world?” asked Tony.</p><p>“I’m at Ned’s.  I’m actually on his Nervegear system.  He let me have the first run on the game.”</p><p>“I’m assuming at this point he would have heard about the situation.  Who do you think he will have called?”</p><p>“Probably Aunt May.  And if he called Aunt May, her first call would probably be to Happy,” said Peter.</p><p>Tony gave a relieved sigh.  If Happy was on the short list, he was sure Hap would get Peter squared away with Tony’s medical team ASAP.</p><p>“Alright, we’re here.  Now out with it, what did I do?” asked Tony</p><p>Peter stared at him with wide eyes, “Wha— What do you mean?”</p><p>“You’ve been acting weird since we first met up, and now that I know its actually you I’m even more concerned.  What did I do?  Did I take your suit away again?  Did I actually hit on Aunt May?  What?”</p><p>“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” muttered Peter, not meeting his eyes.</p><p>“Kid, you’ve been walking on pins and needles around me.  Not all the time, granted.  It comes and goes.  Which is even more weird, to be honest.  So what the hell happened that you periodically can’t bring yourself to look me in the eye and can barely handle hearing me talk?”</p><p>“I’m not mad at you or anything… It’s just— it’s hard,” said Peter, looking away again with a pinched expression.</p><p>“What’s hard?  It’s <em>me</em> kid.”</p><p>“I know.”</p><p>Tony groaned, running a hand over his face in frustration.</p><p>Just then a knock interrupted.</p><p>Peter jumped up quickly, obviously eager to avoid the conversation. The same innkeeper from before stood at the door pushing a cart baring two plates of steaming pub fare and two pints of what Tony assumed was supposed to be water.</p><p>“Thank you very much,” said Peter, placing the food and drinks on a table against the wall of the room.</p><p>“No problem, let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you,” said the innkeeper with a smile before he stepped out, closing the door behind him.</p><p>“Don’t think dinner gets you out of this talk.  I’m not afraid of grilling you over food,” said Tony, sitting at the small table.</p><p>“Yeah, yeah I know…” muttered Peter, taking the other seat.</p><p>“So spill, what happened?”</p><p>“You know, you’re not the only one that has questions.  And considering you don’t seem to remember much of anything, I’d say mine are more important.  How do I know you’re really Tony?  You don’t remember much of anything about this game, and there’s plenty of stuff I’ve mentioned that you should definitely remember,” said Peter.</p><p>Tony swallowed his food down hard, coughing a little when it almost felt like it stuck.  “Mmm… most delicious placebo I’ve ever had,” he said, taking a deep drink both to wash it down and to give him precious seconds to put off Peter’s very valid questions and concerns.</p><p>“Now who’s procrastinating…”</p><p>“Shut it, Underoos, old people need time to organize their thoughts.”</p><p>“Oh, so you’re ‘old people’ now?  Last time I called you old you informed me in no uncertain terms you were never old, only vintage.”</p><p>“I don’t remember that, but since it definitely sounds like my usual load of bull I’ll accept it,” grouched Tony.</p><p>“See, that’s what I’m talking about.  You’ve spent all afternoon saying you can’t remember stuff—”</p><p>“That’s because I can’t.  I can’t remember things passed a certain point, and that certain point is definitely way before whatever date this is for SAO to be in commercial release,” said Tony, his voice rising slightly with the panic he’d worked so hard to repress for the last several hours.</p><p>Peter went quiet, eyeing Tony’s expression.  Finally he asked the obvious question, “What’s the certain point you can’t remember passed?”</p><p>Tony pursed his lips in frustration, but eventually answered, “The last thing I remember is the meeting with Kayaba about moving forward with the AI development I was working on for SAO.  The problem was that in order to do further development and testing it would require me to deep dive into their systems, and for reasons I’ve discussed with you earlier today I was entirely unwilling to open myself up to that.”</p><p>“…but that was in early 2018?”</p><p>“Exactly.  So you tell me kid, <em>what the hell happened?</em>”</p><p>“Ok, but first I want you to tell me something that only Mr. Stark would be able to tell me,” said Peter.</p><p>“Other than the fact that I called you Underoos?”</p><p>“Someone could have overheard it.”</p><p>“Pft, unlikely,” scoffed Tony.</p><p>“Unlikely is not impossible, so cough something up.”</p><p>“Alright… the day before that meeting with Kayaba we were working on your webshooters and you told me about an incident you had as Spider-man with some asshole who apparently has the ability to harden his whole body completely and how you said to him—”</p><p>“OK NEVERMIND I BELIEVE YOU—”</p><p>“’How did you get so HARD so suddenly?!’”</p><p>“DID YOU REALLY HAVE TO RAISE YOUR VOICE A WHOLE OCTAVE TO QUOTE ME?”</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>“Ugh, fine…” said Peter putting his face in his hands to try and hide the bright blush coloring his face.</p><p>“Kid, it’s me… what happened?  Why can’t I remember… <em>anything?</em>”</p><p>Peter sat with his head in his hands, clearly debating how to say what needed to be said.  Eventually, without raising his head, he spoke quietly but clearly.</p><p>“There was a battle… you won, but you took a lot of damage.  You’ve been in a coma ever since.”</p><p>Tony blinked.  A coma…</p><p>That didn’t make sense at all.</p><p>“If I’m in a coma, how am I <em>here</em>?” asked Tony, quizzically.</p><p>“I heard they were doing tests to try and use full-dive tech on coma patients to see if it was possible to reach them directly through a mental interface.  Perhaps there was some wires crossed in whatever system they are using on you and you ended up here?  Or perhaps the plan was to use SAO and interact in this world?  I honestly can’t tell you.  I just know that I haven’t been able to speak to you in a long time and today has been like a dream and a nightmare all at once.”</p><p>Tony finally took note of the tears dripping silently from Peter’s hidden face, glittering as they fell on to the table.</p><p>“I don’t know what’s going on, Mr. Stark.  I just know I’ve missed you so much, and things have been hard and you weren’t there.  And it wasn’t your fault, I know that, but now you’re here and I just don’t know what to say, I can’t—”</p><p>Tony was starkly reminded just how young Peter really was, even considering how much time must have passed since his own memories ended.  When his own parents had passed he had been twenty-one and had been a complete wreck for months.  To have your parents and a guardian dead before fifteen, then… whatever Tony was taken away in every meaningful way only a few years later…</p><p>Awkwardly, Tony reached a hand over and rested it on Peter’s head.  Slowly Peter’s rambling quieted, though his breaths still caught audibly, clearly still fighting tears.</p><p>“I’m sorry, Peter.  I didn’t mean to put pressure on you.  I don’t expect you to have all my answers.  At this point, we’ll probably just have to wait for those until after we get out of this hell hole,” said Tony, eventually pulling his hand back after giving Peter’s hair an affectionate ruffle.</p><p>Peter continued to keep his face down for a moment, surreptitiously wiping at his face, as if he could hide the tears Tony had already clearly seen.  </p><p>“In any case,” said Tony, “How I even got here should probably be the least of our worries at this point. Better to worry about the immediate future.  So what do you think the plan should be?  I grant you, running down the road at twilight was perhaps not the best idea, but my point still stands— we’re better off getting the jump on this thing and putting some space between us and the angry hoards.  What do you think?”</p><p>“You’re probably right, I mean you usually are, but—”</p><p>“Ok, so I’m assuming we’re going to want to stick together for the foreseeable future, yes?” asked Tony.</p><p>“Yes?  I mean if you don’t want to I really wouldn’t blame you, but—”</p><p>“Then you are definitely going to have to learn to call me on my bullshit, kid.  We’re both geniuses as well as hero’s, and we both know that fuckups happen.  So whatever hero-worship you have left at this point is going to have to die a hard death right now.  I may be brilliant but I never really got into rpgs, and I hardly remember a damn thing about this game, so at this point you are the expert here.”</p><p>As he said it, what little color in Peter’s face paled.</p><p>“Not to put any pressure on you… or anything,” said Tony lamely.</p><p>“Uh… sure, right…”</p><p>“Seriously, kid.  What was your plan in this game, anyway?”</p><p>Peter sighed, and looked up at Tony for the first time since the talk had really begun.  His eyes were still red-rimmed and glazed from his bout with tears earlier.</p><p>“Honestly?  I just wanted to exist somewhere for a little while where I was just like everyone else.  Not just pretending to be like everyone else,” admitted Peter, looking mildly ashamed as he admitted it out loud.</p><p>“Hey, there’s no shame in that.  I used to occasionally put on a photostatic veil to go sit with a coffee down in Central Park.”</p><p>“I know, I know but it’s not the same.  When you wear a mask, you’re still you, just no one else knows its you.  I wear a ‘mask’ every day.  But in here there isn’t a mask— I’m just as weak as everyone else.  In here, I figured I could finally feel what normal felt like again,” said Peter.</p><p>“Kid, even if every one of your super powers was taken away, you still could never be the same normal as everyone else.  You are so much more than normal, and that has nothing to do with a spider bite,” said Tony with solemn affection.</p><p>Peter swallowed, his eyes filling up once again.</p><p>“But anyway, no real plan to speak of I guess,” said Tony, attempting to move on before he managed to make Peter cry again. “So how about this— we wake up early tomorrow morning and head out from here to go to the next town.  We’ll take the scenic route, hitting some encounters on the way and going over that beta file a little more thoroughly. Once we get there, we will reassess the situation and decide whether to camp out for a while or keep going.  Wash, rinse, repeat… until we figure out where we want to be.”</p><p>“About as good a plan as any, I guess,” said Peter with a nod.</p><p>“Alright then, now finish eating or I’m going to ground you.”</p><p>“Uh huh, sure… ground me from what?”</p><p>“I don’t know yet.  But I’m sure it’ll be petty.”</p><p>“You always are.”</p><p>“Shut up and eat your fake broccoli.”</p>
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<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hey y'all, got this chapter out a bit sooner than the last one!   </p><p>For those who read the light novels of SAO this chapter will be kinda familiar, for those who have only watched the anime, this is the town where Kirito ran to after leaving Klein in Episode 1, and the quest where he got his Anneal Blade we see in the series.</p><p>Also, while I make no promises that it will make it into the story, I am open to suggestions on what kind of adventures or shenanigans you would like to see the boys get up to in SAO.  As I've mentioned previously I don't really intend to get the boys mixed up too much in the main canon, so if there's an aspect of the SAO world in general you'd like to see explored outside of the main battles and Kirito's storyline I'm open to considering it.  I'm also ok with interactions with known characters, just trying to avoid writing the whole Kirito centric Aincrad arc.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Activate-Vertical slash-hold</p><p>“Switch!”</p><p>1-2</p><p>“Switch!”</p><p>Defend-rage spike, upward strike—</p><p>“SWITCH!”</p><p>Peter fell back again, the post motion-delay that set in for a measly few seconds was nevertheless a highly vulnerable moment that he and Mr. Stark had figured out a work around for early on in their trek.  The boars from Day 1 had been easy one hit kills, so they hadn’t noticed the system forced post-motion cool down period until they had been fighting on the road the next day. Their tag-team approach served them well, and best that Peter could tell from when they came upon other players in the wild, most of the rest had come to the same conclusion that they had. Because of that, it was unusual these days to find someone soloing in the pvp areas by choice.</p><p>Mr. Stark switched in with a strong horizontal slash, bringing the Little Nepenthe's  HP down to zero.</p><p>“You know, I was never one for plants anyway, but after this quest I swear to god I will never put a single point into the gardening skill,” said Mr. Stark as he sheathed his sword.</p><p>“I’ve told you, green stuff is sadness and disappointment solidified,” replied Peter, following suit.</p><p>“I still expect you to eat your greens, kid.”</p><p>“It’s a tragedy, I tell you. Here we are, trapped in a fantasy game and every meal is still served with vegetables.”</p><p>“Yeah, that’s the real tragedy here.”</p><p>“I want my money back.”</p><p>“You weren’t even the one who bought the game.  But either way, I’ll buy you every Playstation, X-Box, and Nintendo game ever in existence when we get back if you just never touch a full dive ever again,” said Mr. Stark, laughing.</p><p>And there’s Peter’s daily reminder that he still hadn’t informed Mr. Stark of the horrific truth of his situation.</p><p>“I think it’s time to call it a night, Underoos.”</p><p>“Is this quest even worth it?  We’ve been out here for like three days weeding these things out.  The drop rate on this thing is atrocious,” moaned Peter.</p><p>“From what our source says, this quest has one of the best weapons you can find on this floor as it’s reward.  And while I’ve been funneling as many points as possible into weapon creation, its not quite where it needs to be to match that yet, so better to start with a good blade and just do the enhancement myself.  Also, don’t think I didn’t notice that terrible pun, you should be ashamed.”</p><p>“Hey, there’s no shame in my pun game.”</p><p>Mr. Stark gave a deep sigh/groan before he turned and started walking back towards the direction of Horunka Village. He probably had rolled his eyes too, but it was impossible to tell through the helmet he always wore.</p><p>Night had long since fallen over Aincrad, and it had been dark in the forest even before that.  Pale blue light slit through the trees overhead, lighting the path, but otherwise they made their way by memory and intuition. A breeze stirred up leaves from the ground, and Peter shivered slightly from the cool night air.  </p><p>“Do you think its going to snow here in the winter?” asked Peter.</p><p>“If we’re all still here in the winter—which all signs point to yes— I think it will.  We can see from the thunderstorm last week it has a functioning variable weather simulator.  I wasn’t a part of that programing team obviously, so I don’t know for certain just how far that variable goes, but I would think the primary associated weather variations like rain, snow and heat waves will be included.  It might also vary by floor.  Probably won’t know the answer to that until we get a few floors opened up,” answered Mr. Stark.</p><p>“Huh… something to look forward to I guess,” said Peter.</p><p>“Why?  You don’t get enough snow in Queens?” Mr. Stark said with a joking tone.</p><p>“Yeah, but you know in the real world I kinda have to be careful with the cold.  My body temperature runs a bit cooler than the average, so unless I’m in the suit I try to keep exposure to a minimum.  In here I can probably spend all day in it with out any trouble,” said Peter.</p><p>“I didn’t know that, actually,” said Mr. Stark, this time far more seriously.  “You haven’t mentioned it, and I hadn’t thought about that at all.”</p><p>“Oh. Well, that built in heater and temperature regulator in the suit pretty much took care of the problem.  It’s just something I have to keep in mind,” said Peter, awkwardly trying to cover his slip up.  Obviously that had been a conversation they had some time after Mr. Stark’s last memory.</p><p>It had been almost two weeks since they had been locked in this game, and Peter was still no where close to figuring out how Mr Stark was even here.  And he was equally no where closer to telling Mr. Stark the truth about the events in the real world— Thanos and the Infinity Stones, Mrs. Stark and Morgan, Mr. Stark’s death and Peter’s own—</p><p> </p><p>“Anyway, we should definitely make a day of it once it does.  I don’t know about you, but its been years since I built a snowman and I kinda want to change that,” said Peter, quickly diverting his thoughts.</p><p>“Sure, might as well.  Not like we’re going anywhere fast in here. Though if you start singing Frozen songs I might reconsider.”</p><p>“You know, they’ve written out your entire life story in news articles and magazines, but they always leave out how much of a killjoy you are.”</p><p>“Whatever, kid.  I’m the life of the party.”</p><p>“A retirement party, maybe.”</p><p>Mr. Stark threw the finger back over his shoulder at Peter and kept walking.</p><p>Peter was just just about to follow suit when out of the corner of his eye, the sight of polygons coalescing into a hazy form caught his attention.</p><p>It was obviously another Little Nepenthe, but above the typical hellish roots and vines and the bizarre, speckled pitcher plant topped with its gaping fanged mouth, was a large, blood red bloom.</p><p>Petter inhaled sharply, the sound causing Mr. Stark to spin around as well.</p><p>This was it.  This is what they were looking for.</p><p>Before the creature could attack and he could second guess himself, Peter drew his sword and leapt in with a swift Horizontal Strike at the plant’s weak spot— the joint between the stalk and the pitcher.</p><p>The strike hit true, and before the evil hell plant got even a single chance to spew its corrosive liquids, it dissolved back into broken polygons, leaving behind nothing but the delicate flower holding the Ovule they had searched for.</p><p>“Whoa!  You actually got one!”</p><p>Mr. Stark and Peter both spun around, swords raised.  Behind them stood another player no older than Peter, with his arms now raised in a sign of surrender.</p><p>“Sorry!  I was using my hide skill in here.  It doesn’t really work on the Little Nepenthes, but it helps avoid other confrontations,” said the player.</p><p>Despite what they said, Peter took a good look around, searching for others.  The timing and the seeming lack of a party giving good reason for concern.  PKers lurking around valuable drop spots to attack and rob unsuspecting players of their loot wasn’t an uncommon thing in PvP games, and unfortunately not even a full two weeks in, SAO was no exception.  In any other game, they may simply be considered griefers.  But here, to the best of their knowledge it was nothing short of murder.</p><p>“Where’s the rest of your party?” asked Mr. Stark, not lowering his blade.</p><p>“Eh, I don’t really have one,” said the guy sheepishly</p><p>“Forgive me if I find that a little hard to believe,” said Mr. Stark.  “Kid, do you see anyone else?  Or are they hidden as well?”</p><p>“Look, there’s really no one else, its just me.  People in here don’t really like my type,” said the guy, with a sad note in his voice.</p><p>“Oh…” said Mr. Stark, voice now tinged more compassion than aggression. “You’re a beta tester, aren’t you kid?”</p><p>The guy flinched, but nodded.  “Please, I promise I’m just doing some light grinding in the area.  There’s no one else, and I already have the quest item.”</p><p>Mr. Stark didn’t sheath his sword, but he gave a nod and backed away.</p><p>“Alright, good luck then,” he said.</p><p>The other player nodded in return, turned and walked back into the woods.</p><p>“Pocket the ovule quick and keep an eye out. Don’t sheath your sword until we get back into town,” said Mr. Stark before he began running back in the direction of Horunka village.</p><p>Peter slipped the item into his inventory and easily kept pace with the other man.  After a few minutes of running, Peter finally spoke up, “Do you think he was telling the truth?  Pretty surprising he freely admitted to that.  For all he knows we could have been Beta Killers.”</p><p>“If we had killed someone our player cursors would still be orange.  It is unusual though.  He must have figured it was worth the risk to try and get us to back off,” said Mr. Stark. “Poor kid, as if being stuck in this game wasn’t bad enough, having to hide a beta status from other players…”</p><p>Just as Mr. Stark had expected that first day, it didn’t take long before the terrified and angry masses started looking for someone to blame.  And with Kayaba disappearing into the digital ether, apparently the scapegoats they chose were the 700 or so beta testers who had logged in with the rest that day.  According to most pub talk, the beta testers had left the rest of the players in the dust of the Town of Beginnings, getting through the most lucrative quests and hunts before most even dared to leave the city.  They were condemned as selfish and greedy, and were therefore persona non-gratis in most parties.  Even worse were the stories of betas being outright murdered and monster PK’d.  Out of the almost 1000 players who were already dead about two weeks in, around 150 had been beta testers.  A staggering amount given how few of them there had been.  Plenty had undoubtedly met their end due to the game itself, but many had ended up victims of angry mobs.</p><p>Peter didn’t understand it.  Yeah, the beta testers had more info and experience than the rest, but they had shared much of that info on the internet before the game even began. Then after a few days in game, vendor markets began carrying a free SAO Guide booklet created by someone called ‘The Rat’, who had clearly made  and circulated the original file Ned had uploaded to the Nervegear.  Almost anything you could want to know was available.  It was how they had learned of this quest in the first place.</p><p>“Hey Ferrum, why do people have to suck so bad?” asked Peter, mostly rhetorically.</p><p>“If I had the answer to that, I wouldn’t have been a weapons manufacturer.”</p><p>After a few minutes of running they finally crossed over into the town Safe Zone.  Horunka was a small village, with only about ten buildings in all.  One of which was the house of the NPC who gave the quest, and their current destination.</p><p>As they walked down the road towards the house, several parties milled about, clearly having just returned from their own hunts.  A couple eyed the two of them as they walked through.</p><p>“Looks like someone finally managed to snag an ovule.  Lucky bastards…” someone muttered.</p><p>“Who actually wears a helmet in this game?” said another.</p><p>“Yikes, imagine being stuck in here with your dad…”</p><p>Overhearing that last line caused Peter’s face to flush, which given its digital nature was just plain unfair.  Did they have to be that thorough?</p><p>No bigger than the town was, they were soon standing in the living area of the house.  The lady of the house whom they had met previously still stood stirring a pot of simmering liquid, her expression drawn and tired.  The only thing that about her that gave her away as an NPC rather than a player was the exclamation mark hovering above her head in the place of a player cursor, indicating a quest in progress.</p><p>“Go on, kid,” said Mr. Stark, staying by the door.</p><p>Peter slowly approached.  Even knowing that the woman was an NPC, it still felt rude to just barge into the house without invitation. He brought up is inventory and took out the ovule, handing it out to her to take.</p><p>Immediately her face brightened, and Peter couldn’t help but wonder just how developed the NPC AIs were.  Were they simple rudimentary ones like most games?  Or were they more like Mr. Stark’s AIs?  Was she aware of what she was?</p><p>“Oh, thank you so much, kind swordsman!  My daughter has only grown worse since we last spoke, I was beginning to worry she may not make it till your return,” she said, taking the ovule from my hand and adding it to the pot.</p><p>I saw my quest log update to the left of my view, but I was distracted by the sound of deep coughs coming from further in the house.</p><p>“Here, this blade has been passed down in my family for generations, but I gladly trade it in exchange for your aid saving my child’s life.  Take it with my blessing,” said the lady, pulling a blade encased in a worn red sheath from an old trunk.  With both hands she extended it out to me to take, a smile still on her lips, tears of gratitude sparkling in her eyes.</p><p>“Thank you,” said Peter, perhaps unnecessarily, but old habits die hard.</p><p>The lady nodded in response and went back to stirring the pot in the kitchen.  The quest was complete.</p><p>In the center of his field of vision, Peter received a message declaring as much, along with one noting the EXP points gained.  </p><p>“Alright, let’s head back to the inn and get some grub and call it a night,” said Mr. Stark, holding the door open for him.  </p><p>Behind them the lady did not acknowledge them at all, but began carefully ladling the contents of the pot into a cup.  Peter wondered if somewhere inside there really was a little NPC girl the lady tended to day in and day out, forever trying to alleviate an illness she was created to suffer through.  </p><p>As Peter walked through the doorway out into the night, he thought back to Aunt May.  Back to when he always seemed to catch whatever bug was going around at the time.  She may not be the best cook, but one thing she had down pat was chicken noodle soup.  She would stand over a pot in the kitchen just like the NPC had, cooking up a big batch that he could easily heat up through out the day when he felt up to eating.  Their finances being what they were, she and Ben could not always get out of work so easily, if at all.  They did their best to schedule their work so one could be there with him, but sometimes the overlap just wasn’t quite there. Fortunately, a little old lady all the apartment kids called Nana lived a couple doors down from them and was usually content to be on call for kids who needed it.</p><p>He wondered what Aunt May was doing right now.  Was she sitting beside his hospital bed, holding his hand, but he couldn’t feel it?  Were they literally in the same room with each other, but worlds apart?  Would she talk to him like she used to when she thought he was sleeping, hoping against everything that he could somehow hear her?  What would she say?  They had only just started finding their new normal when this happened…</p><p>He looked down at this hands, but all he could feel was the weight of the sword he still held.</p><p>Tears came, unbidden and unwanted.  </p><p>If that bastard was going to lock them in this prison, the least he could have done was not code in visual emotion effects. </p><p>“Awww… look at the little boy crying,” mocked one of the players outside the inn as they passed.</p><p>“Don’t be an asshole, Derrig.  You cried for two days straight when this shit started,” said one of his party members, while slapping the offender on the back of the head.</p><p>“You ok, Peter?” asked Mr. Stark quietly.  “I would offer to go beat the shit out of that guy, but not sure if its worth a duel.”</p><p>“No, don’t do that.  I’m alright,” said Peter.  “Let’s just get up to the room.”</p><p>“You go on up, I’ll order some dinner to be delivered,” said Mr. Stark.</p><p>Peter nodded.  They pretty much always ate in a room so that Mr. Stark could remove his helmet.  Occasionally Peter wished they could eat with the other players, just to visit with someone else for a change.  This wasn’t one of those nights.</p><p>Once in their room, Peter quickly removed most of his gear, leaving only his breaches and his tunic.  The sword he placed on the table.  </p><p>Apparently the sword was called ‘Anneal Blade.’</p><p>Peter fell back into a chair, letting his head roll back, closing his eyes.</p><p>In the real world, he would undoubtedly be able to hear every conversation going on in the rooms around them, as well as whatever hubbub was going on in the main room downstairs.  But in here there was naught but silence.  It had taken him a bit to get used to not hearing literally everything going on around him.  He hadn’t realized just how much noise he was used to constantly filtering through in his day to day life until it was completely removed.  He had thought he would love not having to deal with his extra sensitive senses, but come to find out it was pretty anxiety inducing to have them taken away, like an extended bout of sensory deprivation.</p><p>If only he had never put on that Nervegear.  If he had told Ned that maybe they should wait until the next round of production of SAO to get into the game, let them get the bugs worked out.</p><p>Except…</p><p>The door opened, and in came Mr. Stark and two plates of whatever today’s special was downstairs.</p><p>“They were pretty busy down there, so I just brought it up myself.  Figured I’d listen in on a pub talk a minute and see if any news has been circulating,” Mr. Stark said, setting down the plates.</p><p>“Did you hear anything interesting?” asked Peter.</p><p>“Not much.  But one group did mention that there were some rumors floating around about a Log-Out point in a forest west of the Town of Beginnings.  No one going in has come out alive though, and the Rat has been trying to get word out that the information is false and didn’t come from her,” said Mr. Stark, sitting in the chair opposite.</p><p>“Ugh, that sucks,” said Peter.  “What’s the point in starting a rumor like that anyway?”</p><p>“Some people get their kicks in screwed up ways, kid.  It’s as simple as that.”</p><p>The lapsed into silence as they ate their meal.  But eventually Peter noticed Mr. Stark looking up at him.</p><p>“What?” asked Peter.</p><p>“Wanna talk about it?”</p><p>Peter swallowed and shook his head, “Not much to talk about.  Was just thinking about Aunt May.”</p><p>Mr. Stark nodded, “I’m not going to say she’s doing fine, because we both know that’s probably a lie.  But I will say that she’s a strong woman, and I know as soon as we get out of here she will be right there waiting for you with some awful attempt at baked food and the world’s longest hug.”</p><p>Peter gave a laugh as tears began to spring up again.</p><p>“You’re definitely right.  Thanks, Mr. Stark.”</p><p>“Look kid,” said Mr. Stark with a sigh.  “I know you enjoy watching me squirm, but I would really appreciate it if you would switch to just ‘Tony.’ For one thing, there’s millions of Tonys in the world, but with the right info out there the name ‘Mr. Stark’ might become a bit suspicious eventually.  We’ve just been calling me by my user name outside of our room, and that’s worked out alright, but eventually you might slip. And given my track record on secret identities, we should probably do everything possible to avoid scrutiny as long as possible.”</p><p>“Dude, you never had a secret identity.  As soon as Iron Man became a thing you outed yourself on live television,” said Peter with a caustic tone.</p><p>“Whatever, my point still stands,” said Mr. Stark, waving off Peter’s remark.</p><p>“Does it though?”</p><p>“Yes, please, <i>please</i> start calling me Tony.”</p><p>“It really bugs you, doesn’t it?” asked Peter with a laugh.  “Why?”</p><p>Honestly, when he asked he had expected Mr. Stark to blow off the question and change the subject.  Because in the real world— back before the Decimation— every time they’d had this conversation and he had asked, that was ultimately what Mr. Stark did.</p><p>This time however, a tense silence met his question.</p><p>“Growing up, Howard was always ‘Mr. Stark.’”</p><p>There was a pause, as if he was unsure whether to continue, or how.</p><p>“Pretty much everyone on earth calls me ‘Mr. Stark.’  And that’s who they see— billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, wanna-be hero, narcissist, hedonist.  That’s by design.  It’s what everyone expected from me—being my father’s son— and I rose to the occasion.  There’s only a handful of people who have gotten past ‘Mr. Stark’ and made it to ‘Tony.’  At this point, I’d like to think you’re one of them who has.”</p><p>Peter sat in quiet shock.  Then slowly his heart filled up to the brim with something warm and sad, until he felt he could have burst.</p><p>There were a million things he felt, and only a few he could say.  But only one he felt needed to be said right then.</p><p>“Ok… Tony.  But I don’t want to hear you call yourself a wanna-be hero again.  Because you are a hero.  To everyone… but especially me.”</p><p> </p><p>Tony didn’t reply for a moment, but eventually settled on a nod.</p><p>“Alright, deal,” Tony finally said, turning back to his food.</p><p>The got a few more bites in before Tony spoke again.</p><p>“I’m thinking of skipping on meals for a while.  I’m kinda curious how long it takes to actually start feeling hungry in here.”</p><p>Peter looked at him confused, “What do you mean?  You haven’t been hungry?  Like at all?”</p><p>Tony blinked at him, “No, you mean you have?”</p><p>“Uh, yeah… several times a day usually.”</p><p>“Huh… maybe its because of your real world metabolism bleeding through.  But no, haven’t felt it at all yet.  Seems like a waste of Cor for me to buy meals if I haven’t actually been hungry,” said Tony, finishing up the last bite of his roast.  “Not to say that its a wasted experience.  They did a pretty remarkable job on this coding.  But it would probably be better to save what money we can for now.”</p><p>Peter nodded, turning back to his own plate, but could only bring himself to push the food around a little, his stomach suddenly a bit queasy.  Perhaps Tony was right, and it was just because of his RL body needs…</p><p>He’d talk to a few other players about their experience.  Just to be sure.</p><p>“So, ‘Anneal Blade,’ huh?” said Tony, looking over the sword still laying on the table.  He brought up its specs to analyze.</p><p>“Yeah, not exactly sure what the name is about.  I mean, I know about the annealing process in biochemistry.  I studied it a bit after the spider bite.  But not sure how that would really apply to a sword,” said Peter.</p><p>“It was originally a process to remove impurities and harden iron for weapons.  That’s where scientists originally pulled the term from that they used for the DNA process,” said Tony offhand, still reading through the sword’s numbers and looking it over in his hands.  “The sword is as good as the guide implied.  It should definitely hold up for you for a good while.  Especially once I can start enhancements on it.  Looks like we can attempt up to eight.”</p><p>“Does that mean we need to put a blacksmith’s forge on the shortlist?” asked Peter.</p><p>“Nah, I still have a few levels before we need to worry about that.  Still, like I said, it is probably a good idea to start pinching pennies where we can.  Jesus, I haven’t had to save money since that time my old man cut me off for a while back in college.  This sucks.”</p><p>“Welcome to how the other 99.9% live,” said Peter, not an ounce of sympathy in his voice.</p><p>Tony shrugged, “Karma is definitely a bitch.”</p><p>“This isn’t karma.  You’re just a spoiled brat.”</p><p>Tony stuck out his tongue, just like the mature adult he was.</p><p>Peter laughed, “Exactly.  I’m calling it a night.  We good to head out in the morning?”</p><p>“Yup, heading west from here to grind a bit on some of the higher level forest mobs.  We’ll see where we end up after that.”</p><p>Peter nodded.  Where ever they went and whatever they faced, they would do it together.  They’d make it through this. </p><p>Even without his spider powers and Tony’s money, they were still Spider-man and Iron Man.  Kayaba couldn’t take that away from them.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The boys return to Town of Beginnings for the first time since the death game began.  Peter has a personal revelation on his notions of power and responsibility, Tony gets a glimpse of some truths which Peter has kept hidden, and both reflect on what they have seen and how they should move forward.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Well, I'm definitely not winning Nanowrimo again this year, but I did get a chapter out earlier than previously, and hopefully I'll be updating again soon.  Also, this chapter I attempted to briefly show different perspectives on the game being cleared, and both were based on what my own feelings would have been at two different points in my life, so don't come at me about it please.  Take care of yourselves, and I hope you enjoy the chapter.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Town of Beginnings had changed remarkably from three weeks ago.  Sure, the buildings and streets were all the same, but the mood and tension in the air hung like a thick blanket over nearly every person within the walls.  In sharp contrast, the NPC’s on the street continued to merrily hawk their wares and interact with those in the street, most of whom seemed to be ‘out of towners’ like themselves.  From windows above, you could occasionally see a face peering down before a drape would be pulled closed again.</p><p>All in all, it was distinctly unsettling, but exactly what Tony had expected.</p><p>“I knew some would hole up in the starter town, but this is a bit more intense than I imagined,” said Peter, as they made their way towards an inn.</p><p>“Kid, almost two thousand people have died since this game began—two out of every ten people who started.  In all honesty, I’m surprised how many of us have hit the ground running,” said Tony.</p><p>“I know, but turning into a complete shut-in seems a bit extreme.  Its not like anything is going to attack you within the city’s safe zone…”</p><p>“You say that, but that assumption is born from an inherent trust of the system.  A system that has already been previously hijacked and altered to trap us all here on the whim of an asshole with a god complex.  Considering that, who do you <i>really</i> think is crazy?  The ones who can’t bring themselves to trust the system to protect them, or the ones who do?” asked Tony.</p><p>“I guess when you put it that way, I see your point.  But still, we’re probably going to be here for a while.  Are they just planning on staying in one room for the next however many years?”</p><p>“I imagine some of them will eventually venture out and find their own niche in the world, even if it isn’t battling the local mobs.  Some will start fishing, or hunting, mining, cooking… the skill list for the game is extensive.  Some entrepreneurs will probably start opening player run businesses and establishments.  But I doubt we’ll see much of that until the Level One Floor Boss is found and cleared.  These people are stuck in the dark without a light, believing the system is rigged against them.  They need to see proof of what’s possible, a light to guide them forward, before we’ll see any real progress here.  And even then, there will still be some who never go further than the walls of this city,” said Tony.  “The amount of specialized therapy everyone in this game will need afterward is going to make some psychologists rich.”</p><p>Ahead of them, Tony saw a sign for an inn and turned to Peter.</p><p>“You can go ahead and get us set up for the night.  I’m going to go and find a tool shop and a smithy, see if I can add a durability upgrade.  Do you need anything while I’m out?” asked Tony.</p><p>“Um… Maybe some more potions.  I used the last one back in the West forest.  Though god those things taste like dirty socks,” said Peter, checking his inventory.</p><p>“You know, if you stopped doing dumb crap like jumping between me and attacks you wouldn’t have this problem,” said Tony, with a dry tone and a distinctly unsympathetic expression.</p><p>“What’s the point of having each other’s back if I don’t guard it?” said Peter, completely unrepentant. </p><p>Tony threw up his hands as he turned and walked away, calling over his shoulder, “Potions it is!”</p><p>He didn’t have to look back, he could feel the boy’s eyes roll into his head.</p><p>As Tony worked his way towards the central market, he took in the graystone streets and buildings with ornate windows and battlements.  Every so often he would come across small barren plazas with lovely fountains and flora, nearly empty cafes and brightly colored vendor stalls. Even an occasional vista located just perfectly to allow someone a majestic view of the city and the surrounding area. Tony sighed, thinking of what could have been for this city that many had spent years of their lives developing. </p><p>The Town of Beginnings would have been a beautiful city without the miasma of despair that clung to its inhabitants. </p><p>It got him to wondering exactly what had come of his AIs, the ones Argus had requested.  He had almost had one completely coded at the time of their last meeting.  She had been a sweet one.  But since he had woken in the game, he had seen no sign of her.  Did they end up including her in the Cardinal System at all?</p><p>Maybe he should start poking around the GM user panel in earnest, see what he could find out.  So far, he had mostly kept away from delving into it, afraid of catching Kayaba’s attention.  But if there was something he could do to help, he would damn well try.  </p><p>Up ahead he saw a sign advertising a blacksmith and item vendor.  Eventually he wanted to try and open a smithy himself.  Peter seemed set on throwing himself into harms way (per usual), and if he was going to do that, Tony wanted to make sure he had the best equipment available to do so.  So Tony started learning how to do what he did best— make weapons and armor. </p><p>But to do that required a blacksmith’s forge and anvil.  And to get that required a hefty amount of Cor.  So for now, he rented an NPC blacksmith’s resources every now and then in order to improve and repair their equipment.</p><p>A bell jingled as he opened the door, undoubtedly triggering the customary NPC interaction.</p><p>“Welcome to Varden’s Smith and Sundry!  How may I help you today?” called the man behind the counter.</p><p>“I would like to buy potions,” said Tony.</p><p>“What quantities would you like?”</p><p>“Ten.”</p><p>“That will be 1,500 Cor.”</p><p>“Ugh…” Tony broke the script to groan.  He didn’t begrudge the purchase, far from it.  But seriously, the kid needed to stop getting hit in the first place.  His heart really couldn’t take this, and neither could their pocket book.</p><p>Who would have guessed he’d finally learn the concept of budgeting in his fifties?  And boy did it suck.</p><p>Tony opened up his inventory, removing the required amount to place on the counter.  As soon as it hit the counter, the bag of Cor flashed and disappeared.</p><p>“Thank you for your purchase!  Is there anything else I can help you with?”</p><p>“Yes, I’d like to rent your forge,” said Tony.</p><p>“Ah, yes!  Come!  Follow me this way…”</p>
<hr/><p>As Peter entered the inn, he glanced around the first floor tavern where various parties sat around rough hewn tables over pub fare and pints.  At the bar, several others sat, conversing casually, though a little less intimately than those at the lower tables.  Making a decision, he approached the bar.</p><p>“What can I getcha?” asked the barman as Peter sat.</p><p>“Whatever today’s special is and a pint,” said Peter, setting the typical meal cost in Cor down on the counter.</p><p>The barman nodded, accepting the payment and placing a full pint down in front of Peter before turning to finish the task.</p><p>As he waited, Peter took sips of his drink and listened in on the conversations around him.</p><p>“Word is they’ve finally found the entrance to the dungeon, as well as a new town relatively close to it called Tolbana.  Hopefully within the next week or two they’ll find the boss and the first floor will be cleared,” said a woman to his left.</p><p>The girl sitting on the other side of her shook her head.  “But how many more will die clearing it out?  There’s already almost 2,000 names crossed out on the Monument of Life in the Black Palace.”</p><p>“What else are we supposed to do?  We either die trying to get out or die of old age stuck in a virtual world.”</p><p>“Would that really be the worst thing, though?  In the real world I’m in constant pain from my condition, some days I can’t even make it out of bed for more than the absolute necessities.  Here I can live without that.”</p><p>The woman next to him sighed, “I’m sorry for that, and I understand why you would consider the option of just living within the system.  But some of us can’t.  When I dove, I told my husband it would only be for a couple of hours, then we could take our five year old son to the park.  They’re waiting on me to return.  I want to be able to see my child grow up.  So its a risk I have to take.”</p><p>The other girl nodded, “I get it.”</p><p>It was at that point the barman set a plate of what looked and smelled like chicken and roasted squash in front of him.  Peter thanked the man and began to eat.</p><p>“God that looks good…” said the girl a couple seats down.  “I haven’t eaten a proper meal in a couple days.  The black bread is cheaper, though its dry and doesn’t last very long.”</p><p>“You really should try and go hunting.  You’ll never make enough Cor or skill points to survive comfortably unless you do.  Even if its just around this area,” said the other woman.  “Going hungry for the next few years would be pretty miserable.”</p><p>“Sorry if I’m intruding,” said Peter, “but I’ve been curious about something— how often and how quickly do you get hungry in here?”</p><p>“Well, I haven’t really left the city, so I don’t make much Cor to buy food with,” said the girl.  “So I kind of just stay hungry throughout most of the day.”</p><p>“When I’m leveling I tend to press through instead of stopping to eat,” said the woman, “But when I am eating regularly, I’d say I start feeling hunger similar to how I would in the real world, about every four to six hours.  But I’m not sure if its tied to our real world feelings of hunger or a virtual schedule.”</p><p>“Might be a little of both… I tend to get hungry a lot in RL, but in here its spaced out a bit more,” said Peter, taking a bite of chicken.  </p><p>Out of the corner of his eye he could see the girl still looking wistfully at his food.  </p><p>“Sir, I’d like to order a second plate, but give it to her,” said Peter, nodding in her direction.</p><p>As the barman nodded and walked off, the girl started waving her hands.</p><p>“No, you shouldn’t do that.  Save your Cor—”</p><p>“It’s alright, I promise.  I’m in here with—”</p><p>Shit.  What should he call Tony?</p><p>
  <i>‘…Imagine being stuck in here with your dad.’</i>
</p><p>“Er— my sort of Dad, and we’ve been doing pretty good with the mobs.  So I can afford it.”</p><p>She looked for a moment like she was thinking of arguing still, until the plate was set in front of her.  She eyed the food before her eyes teared up a bit, and she nodded.</p><p>“Thank you.  I really appreciate your kindness.”</p><p>“It’s not a problem.  I’d do the same in the real world.  And what I would do there is what I should do in here,” said Peter.</p><p>“Those are wise words,” said the woman.  “And you are uncommonly kind.  I hope you are able to keep that, but don’t expect everyone in here to share your mindset.”</p><p>“I won’t, but just because others choose to not do the right thing doesn’t mean I have to.  We all have the power and responsibility to choose to do good,” said Peter, and he felt the intangible feeling within him that he had been wrestling with since the beginning calm.</p><p>It wasn’t that the responsibility was no longer his without his powers, it was that the power and responsibility was <i>everyone’s</i>.  </p><p>Perhaps it always had been.</p><p>And just like in the real world, there were those who used their power for good, those who used power for evil, and those that never used their power at all.  Most thinking they had none, just like the girl a couple seats down.</p><p>But if they worked together…</p><p>Peter felt his resolve form.</p><p>He was going to the front line.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p>As Tony stepped back out onto the street, he considered his options.</p><p>Obviously he needed to head back to the inn.  Afterward they could probably head out and take a look around town, seeing as they hadn’t really done so on day one.</p><p>But the memory of a cafe he had passed was singing its song…</p><p>He <i>really</i> missed coffee.</p><p>Surely they had some digital variation in this game.  If not he was lodging a complaint.</p><p>The cafe was just as vacant as when he passed earlier.  There were a couple people sitting at a table outside, but was otherwise empty of players.</p><p>The customary tinkle of the door as he entered prompted the NPC barista to smile and wave.  On the wall behind the counter was a blackboard with various items written— sandwiches and what Tony suspected were types of teas, and in a bottom corner there was a selection of drinks called ‘Kaf.’</p><p>“Bingo!  I’ll have a black kaf,” Tony looked at the pastries on display off to the side, spying a familiar donut shape with pink frosting, “And one of whatever you call this.”</p><p>A minute later he was sitting at a table out front, facing away from the two other patrons with his visor moved, taking a drink of the weirdest tasting ‘coffee’ he had ever tasted.  If he had to describe it he would say it was more like a tea, with floral and berry notes and a touch of honey, but with a darker color and consistency of a french press coffee.  It wasn’t bad, it just was not what he had been expecting.</p><p>Oh well, the donut was a perfect reproduction of a strawberry frosted Dunkin Donut.</p><p>“Man, if I make it out of this alive my wife is going to kill me.  She’s been super anxious since the Blip— not that I blame her, you know— and this whole thing was definitely not something she was very confident in to begin with,” said one of the men sitting at the nearby table.</p><p>“Damn… you were one of the ones caught up in that?  I lucked out I guess… I’m not really close to many and the ones I am were spared,” replied the other.</p><p>“Yeah, I know the Avengers ended up saving everyone in the end and I’m thankful for that obviously, but everything is still such a damn dumpster fire.”</p><p><i>That</i> caught Tony’s attention.</p><p>The Blip?  Bit of an odd name for an Avenger’s battle.  How were the Avengers even a thing?  Last time he checked Rogers and his merry men and women were still considered war criminals at large.  The ‘Avengers’ consisted of himself, Vision and Rhodey.</p><p>“No joke.  Almost every economy is still tanked at the moment.  And I’m pretty sure half of upper New York State is a crater.  Glad that fight was over there and not in my part of the world.”</p><p>The bottom of Tony’s stomach dropped out at those words.  </p><p>
  <i>“There was a battle… you won, but you took a lot of damage.  You’ve been in a coma ever since.”</i>
</p><p>Peter had never said anything else about the battle, and Tony hadn’t pressed.  But if a giant chunk of the state had been completely destroyed because of the battle <i>surely</i> he would have mentioned that?</p><p>Wouldn’t he?</p><p>Obviously a lot more happened in that battle than Peter had led him to believe.  Tony eventually being taken out of commission in a fight was one thing, but from the sound of things this was on par with the Battle of Sokovia.</p><p>So why hadn’t Peter mentioned it?</p><p>“It was good to catch up, we’ll have to do this again when I’m back this direction.  Or maybe on another floor if the rumors of the first floor dungeon door being found are true,” said the first man, standing up.</p><p>“Sounds good to me, though I’ll probably be pretty busy soon.  Some of us around here have started organizing to try and provide resources for the people here in town.  Some of them are players who don’t want to chance dying in the game, but there’s also some kids who are way younger than what the minimum play age was supposed to be.  A few volunteers have taken up residence with them in a church in town and we’ve been supplying them with food…” said the other man, as they both walked away.</p><p>Damn... that wasn’t something he had thought about, but of course there would be kids who either snuck in on a parent’s account or who were allowed to lie about their age to play the game.  Jokes about eight year olds talking crap on Call of Duty were a dime a dozen and everyone laughed about it, but here…</p><p>Maybe he should look into that, see what help he could offer.  Though unlike in the real world, simply throwing his money at the problem couldn’t fix it.  Mostly because he didn’t have any money.  Ugh…</p><p>Speaking of kids though, he’d need to decide what to say once he got back to his kid at the inn.  </p><p>Tony took a few deep breaths, trying to loosen up the hold his anxiety had started to take.  </p><p>Obviously whatever had happened had been huge— Avengers assembled (with or without Rogers and co?), massive property damage, Iron Man out of commission, every country feeling the economic backlash.  But unlike what had happened with Sokovia, despite the damages it seemed like the general public opinion after the fact was positive…?  </p><p>That was unusual.</p><p>Most importantly at this point, whatever had happened had affected people across the globe, but especially one young man from Queens.</p><p>Had he been at the battle?  Tony had initially offered the kid a spot after the whole vulture debacle, but after he had actually slept on it a few hours (the first time he’d slept properly in a few days) he had come to the realization that Peter turning the position down had saved them from what had been an awful idea in the first place.  And that was BEFORE May Parker had shown up at the complex in an unholy righteous fury.</p><p>So Tony could not imagine having called Peter into a fight, and if it had taken place at the compound like he suspected, Peter shouldn’t have been anywhere near there.</p><p>He wanted to go back to the inn and wrangle the details out of Peter.  Who was the fight against?  What was it about?  Was Rogers there?  If so, <i>how</i> was Rogers involved?  Why was public opinion seemingly in their favor for once?  Had anyone other than him been hurt?</p><p>Oh god… What if something had happened to Pepper…</p><p>No.  Peter would have told him that.  He wouldn’t lie to him about Pepper, and he had told him weeks ago that she was fine.  She was safe.</p><p>Tony dropped his head into his hand.</p><p>He wanted to ask all those questions, <i>needed</i> those answers… </p><p>But even if he got his answers, what could he do about any of it?</p><p>And was it worth potentially driving Peter away from him?  His kid.  The only person he knew and could dare to trust with the truth of his identity in this world?</p><p>No.  No it wasn’t.</p><p>He would just have to see what he could find out from others.  And hopefully Peter would eventually come around and open up about what had happened.  He trusted the kid with his life, he would trust him in this, too.</p><p> </p><p>The walk back to the inn seemed much quicker than the one to smithy due to Tony’s preoccupied mind and nerves.  He was still unsure what to say when he got to the room.  He needn’t have worried though, because Peter fixed that problem.</p><p>“I want to start fighting on the front line.  I’m heading to the dungeon tomorrow.”</p><p>“Wait— excuse me, <i>what?</i>”</p>
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